A lot can happen in a year, and a lot has. Here, we take a look at Microsoft and what the Redmond-based behemoth has achieved over the last 12 months.

One year on, we can see how the company’s connected screens plan is coming together – you only have to look at the potential now being seen for combining its Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and Xbox gaming platforms to offer interplay that few other companies can hope to match. But it’s not there quite yet, before we look ahead to 2014 and what we might expect to see from the company, let’s recap its major achievements of 2013 first.

There’s also plenty to say about Skype, Xbox Music, Xbox Video, Outlook and Office from 2013 too, among other things. And let’s not forget the small matter of deciding who will take the CEO spot once Steve Ballmer retires, as announced in August.

Windows 8.1

When Windows 8 launched in 2012, it’s fair to say that it wasn’t met with the warmest of receptions. Microsoft’s core OS had been reworked for a new generation of form factor-spanning devices, and in doing so, some of the more familiar and useful functions, like the Start button, had gone.

For the next iteration in 2013, Microsoft listened to the feedback and set to work on Windows 8.1, the first major update to the operating system, which finally arrived in beta in June. It then made it to retail in October.

Addressing some of the criticism that had been leveled at the initial Windows 8 release, Windows 8.1 brought more than just a lick of paint. Among the many new features was a (sort of) return of the Start button – although it simply throws you across to the Start screen rather than replicating the functionality of the previous Start button – alongside a number of other desktop tweaks designed to make the platform easier to use without a touchscreen. Included in these tweaks are more options for personalizing the Start screen, a full list of all your installed apps, a downwards swipe away from the Start screen, and the change to hide ‘Library’ folders by default.

Other than trying to appease users missing the Start button, there were far more significant changes under the hood, including an entire rework of how the search function works across the whole OS, as well as deeper integration with Bing and Xbox Music, resulting in some very attractive search results.

With rumors of the next major build already beginning to bubble away on the rumor mill, and the possibility for a major milestone in the form of Windows ‘Threshold’, which according to current thinking could be a multi-platform update applicable to Windows, Xbox and Windows Phone. There are definitely exciting possibilities there, if executed well.

Windows Store

Like its Windows Phone counterpart, the Windows Store – home to all the Windows 8 apps – is vital to the overall success of such a major transition for the Windows operating system.

By March, there were about 50,000 apps in the store, and by July this number had reached more than 100,000. Today, this stands at around 137,000 and includes some of the usual big names such as Facebook, Nook, Skype, Netflix, Twitter, Amazon, Napster, Foursquare, Flipboard, and more.

This figure isn’t anywhere near the sheer number of tablet-specific apps for Apple’s platform but numbers don’t paint the whole picture, and it’s worth noting that half way though 2013, the platform was criticized for missing out on some big name apps, a situation that has largely been rectified now.

That’s not to say it’s perfect, but progress has certainly been made throughout the year. Now, what developers need to do is ensure that each Windows 8 version has a feature-set that’s on par with other platforms. Apps like Dropbox, for example, which are ubiquitous across various platforms become less useful and more confusing when the features change depending on which device you happen to be using it from. Microsoft needs to entice devs to consider this.

For 2014, we expect to see more curation introduced to the Store to make personalized recommendations more reliable and accurate.

They may be the successors, the new generation, but at a glance, they look very familiar. That’s little surprise really, as the hardware saw only minor tweaks (like making the angle of the stand at the rear user-adjustable) and a few upgrades under the bonnet, like a longer battery life, larger storage options and a new processor.

Although Microsoft hasn’t revealed any sales figures for the Surface 2 or Surface 2 Pro, its main developer account did recently tweet that stocks of the devices were running low – and several retailers’ websites have since shown stock to be all gone there too. While this can be an indication of how well it is performing in the market, Microsoft also hasn’t said how many of the units it shipped to retailers, so it’s no guarantee of massive numbers.

In March 2013, Bloomberg reported that Microsoft had sold around 1.5 million of the original Surfaces, with around 400,000 of those being the Pro model. As a guide, we’d expect to start seeing rough sales figures for the Surface 2 in a few months’ time – although they will need to be far more impressive than those seen this year for the original.

Next: Windows Phone and Nokia

Windows Phone & Nokia

Windows Phone 8 has continued to make in-roads during 2013, following its introduction towards the end of 2012. At the beginning of the year, data revealing that Windows Phone had passed BlackBerry into third spot behind iOS and Android in terms of global shipments, was released by IDC.

By the most recent count from comScore (ending in October), Microsoft’s mobile OS held just 3 percent of the US mobile market share but had actually surpassed 10 percent – and iOS – in some European countries, such as UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. It’s also doing well in Latin America and other emerging markets.

A significant update for Windows Phone 8 is yet to appear, but unofficial info suggests Windows Phone 8.1 will include things like on-screen buttons for navigation, a new notification set-up and virtual assistant, and bespoke Skype messaging features.

Although other manufacturers have been free to release Windows Phone 8-based devices, few have chosen to do so. The few handsets that were made to run the OS include Samsung’s ATIV Odyssey and ATIV S Neo, and the Huawei Ascend W1 and W2.

Pretty much all the other Windows Phone 8 devices that have gone on sale this year have been Nokia Lumia products, thanks to an agreement dating back to February 2011.

The Lumia 525, 620, 625, 720, 925, 928, 1020, 1520 have all been released this year, largely cementing the brand as the go-to camera phone of choice if that’s your priority above all else. Oh, there’s also the Lumia 1320 too, which has been announced but not yet released, although it’s due to arrive in January.

A key aspect in establishing Windows Phone as a major player in the smartphone space rests on the surrounding ecosystem of apps and services, and Microsoft has been trying to improve this area too, after suffering much criticism when Windows Phone was first launched.

While it certainly isn’t all about big numbers in the app store from the average consumer’s perspective, Microsoft does need to give developers a reason to build apps (or more importantly, build first) for Windows Phone – a few million more handset sales per quarter is a few million more reasons.

It’s not all been plain sailing and good vibes for Microsoft’s Windows Phone marketing department though; a rather ill conceived Windows Phone ad mocking Apple’s iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c launch is probably best avoided in future. Windows Phone might have had a wider range of different colored handsets before Apple, but this isn’t the way to get the message across, show a sense of humor, or lure potential buyers.

Next: Xbox One

Xbox One

It has been a long time coming, but Microsoft’s next-generation console was unveiled in May this year, and finally made it onto retailers’ shelves in late November 2013, going up against the Sony PlayStation 4 which launched a week later.

However, the console did indeed go on sale as planned on November 22, bringing a bunch of new features and hardware with it. Unfortunately, as is often the case with launch-day consoles, the first wave of sales also brought the first wave of reports of errors and bricked devices.

For users that actually have a working console, some of the most notable features of the unit include a rework of the UI and feature set to make it more of a home entertainment hub than a pure gaming machine.

As well as providing a fully revamped UI and voice controls via the upgraded Kinect 2 peripheral (shipped with every Xbox One by default) and integrating things like TV output through the console, Microsoft has also made it possible to make calls on Skype from an Xbox One directly from the dashboard using either a controller or voice commands.

Although it was only released towards the end of November, Microsoft has wasted no time in rolling out an update that addresses a number of issues, such as problems with SmartGlass, difficulties rejoining multiplayer games, and some wireless controller glitches. Clearly, it hasn’t been a smooth take-off for the Xbox One, but Microsoft seems to be working to rectify as many of these teething problems as it can.

Based on early sales data from NPD, Microsoft declared the Xbox One “the fastest selling console on the market in the US”, whereas Sony trumpeted the PlayStation 4 as “the top-selling console for November and PlayStation was #1 in sales overall for home consoles”. Either way, both have sold more than 2 million devices and both have only just hit the market, there will be a lot more rounds to go in this particular console battle before (if ever) a definitive ‘winner’ can be drawn.

Microsoft Services

Away from Microsoft’s major operating system and hardware platforms, it has a whole range of services that provide additional functionality and features to users of many different mobile and desktop platforms. All of these have seen a natural evolution throughout 2013, largely culminating around the release of Windows 8.1, for which many of Microsoft’s core services underwent a significant revamp.

SkyDrive

If Microsoft’s Azure infrastructure is the hardware that underpins its multi-faceted operations, then SkyDrive is the glue that pulls together its consumer-facing cloud services on its own, and other, platforms.

SkyDrive has come a long way since it was first introduced under the moniker of Windows Live Folders in 2007 (although it did have the SkyDrive codename, even back then) and this year saw a number of improvements and extensions to the platform as it comes under increasing pressure from pure cloud service providers in Asia that offer far larger amounts of free storage space. On iOS devices, among other things, Microsoft also enabled automatic backup to SkyDrive (below) this year for the first time, although the Android app is still lacking this option.

However, a key advantage that Microsoft has over players like this is that SkyDrive is now an integral part of its core platforms, like Windows 8/8.1 and Windows Phone, as well as being accessible via native apps on other rival platforms. However, Google and Apple both also have robust cloud sync, storage and backup offerings with a similarly compelling feature set.

Whether or not 2014 will be the year that Microsoft decides to bring parity to all the native mobile SkyDrive apps remains to be seen, but you can bet on further integration with other Microsoft products – it’s baked into all of them already, from phones to the Xbox One, so deeper integration and interplay between devices could be on the cards.

Skype

2013 was the year that Microsoft-owned Skype turned 10 years old, and took the time to reflect on the things it had achieved in that time, like the 1.4 trillion minutes of conversation that it has facilitated between the 300 million users that have carried out a call.

However, rather than being another year of reflection, Skype has achieved a number of things in 2013, as part of its goal of being more closely integrated with Windows, which we ultimately saw with the Windows 8.1 release.

In February, the Skype Android app was updated to allow users to make calls directly to Windows Messenger (since retired) users.

Although separate apps and services, these two are important parts of Microsoft’s multi-platform strategy, and both services have seen continued development and a tighter focus on platform integration throughout the year. For example, carrying out a search on a device running Windows 8.1 will also return matching results directly from Xbox Music and Xbox Video.

2013 has been a year where Microsoft has tried to differentiate Bing from Google Search results by consistently adding to the type of content it will show directly in the results list, and by more deeply integrating it with its other services, like Windows 8.1 and the Xbox One. It’s also the year that Microsoft released Bing for developers, so they could begin to integrate the search service.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing, however. As the search service has improved, it has once again suffered claims that some of the ads that run alongside search results have been directing users towards malware-ridden sites. However, on the whole, 2013 has been kind to Bing and Microsoft has worked hard to provide a different search experience than found elsewhere.

In October, Bing held around 18.1 percent of the browser market share, with Google top of the head with 66.9 percent and Yahoo in third place with 11.1 percent, according to comScore data.

No official updates on the number of Outlook.com users has been provided since May, so it will be interesting to see how rapidly it continued to attract new users once the migration of Hotmail users had been completed, and whether it managed to offer enough to keep them coming back.

Office 365

Office 365 is another Microsoft product that has been more deeply integrated with its other platforms in 2013, through things like offering Yammer Enterprise with every Office 365 Enterprise edition, and introducing functionality like the co-authoring of apps – all of which has been done to help the company fend off advances from rival productivity suites.

For non-Office 365 converts, Microsoft launched Office 2013 at the end of January and with its introduction came more cloud-tied (unsurprisingly) features, like integration with Skype, Yammer and SkyDrive, image support via Office.com, Bing.com or Flickr, as well as a load more general improvements and tweaks

Steve Ballmer’s retirement

As we approach the end of the year, Steve Ballmer’s time at Microsoft’s reins is nearing its end. In August, he said he’d be retiring from the top spot within 12 months. Who will step in to fill his shoes? Microsoft hasn’t said, but there are certainly plenty of rumors circulating, which have floated names like:

Stephen Elop, currently CEO of Nokia but transferring back to Microsoft following the sale of its Devices and Services division

Tony Bates, former CEO at Skype, now head of business development

Alan Mulally, CEO at Ford

Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s cloud and enterprise chief

Kevin Turner, current COO at Microsoft

However, according to AllThingsD earlier this month, that shortlist is now far shorter, and early promising candidates have begun to lose their shine. Instead, Kara Swisher, suggests that VMWare’s current CEO Pat Gelsinger could be a prime candidate.

Whoever ends up at the helm, we’ll have to wait until next year to find out. Originally, it had been the intention to announce his replacement before 2013 was over, but with the clock ticking towards January 1, the task was too important to rush. Microsoft has now said that the replacement is expected to be confirmed in “the early part of 2014“.

Next: Microsoft in 2014?

Microsoft in 2014?

In a year that contained revelations about the NSA and the UK’s GCHQ spying on citizens around the world, Microsoft is one of a number of companies calling for the US government to allow it to reveal more information about the requests for personal information it receives from official channels. As yet, the situation is still deadlocked and more information cannot be disclosed. Also like its competitors, Microsoft has decided to beef up security across its products in a bid to tackle the government snooping on its users. But then, it has also been forced to co-operate when under legal obligation to provide access to SkyDrive, Skype and Outlook.com data.

With privacy likely to remain a hot topic, both for Microsoft and technology in general, 2014 will be a year of continued convergence for Microsoft first and foremost.

Microsoft is in a rare position: consider how many companies have the ability – today – to provide a unified experience across desktops, laptops, tablets , phones and consoles. Apple and Google come to mind as potentials, obviously, but in some way the most viable other company (in terms of having software that runs across each form factor seamlessly) that might have a chance to do so is Canonical’s Ubuntu project, which is aiming for a similar goal. However, without hardware support – and that does still seem to be lacking for Ubuntu phones and OEM hardware – it won’t get there.

As well as bringing its platforms and service ever closer together, it’s also possible that Microsoft could be considering the wearable technology trend that gathered pace in 2013. Samsung and Sony have smart watches on sale already, Google has Glass, Apple has a perpetually rumored iWatch-type device… and Microsoft has…? We’d be surprised if it didn’t have any plans whatsoever for the wearables market.

There are few companies of Microsoft’s scale that can significantly refocus attention on both hardware and software, and rejig its board and business divisions with a view to “rallying behind a single strategy”. In 2014, we’ll hope to get a closer look at how exactly this rejig has affected the company and whether this single strategy is the right one.